Though the sleeve-notes
go into compositional matters there’s
not a word about the chosen title for
this collection, Old Vienna.
Kreisler qualifies, naturally, though
he’s here in his more administrative
role as Mozart and Paganini transcriber.
And Alt Wien of course qualifies
Godowsky. But elsewhere things are a
little looser. Schubert, yes, though
he’s represented by an unusual piece,
the Marche caractéristique,
in the transcription for violin and
piano by Konstantin Mostras. Perhaps
Cyril Scott arrives courtesy of his
friendship with Kreisler. But Corelli
and Medtner and even Weiner are struggling
over the far side of a concept precipice.
So let’s just forget the label and examine
the contents.

The Godowsky pieces
have been long associated with two great
figures of the violin – Heifetz, who
transcribed Alt Wien, and Kochanski
to whom the Waltz Poem was dedicated.
Weiner’s dance is a piece of waggish
sophistication, a knowing conflation
of classical and czardas. The Moszkowski-Scharwenka
Spanish Dances – the dance is
a seam that runs throughout the disc
– comprise three of the set. They’re
elegant and polite piano pieces, dished
up for violin and piano with minimal
effort. Not much trace of Spanishry
here, it has to be said. Wolf’s song
Verborgenheit (Seclusion
in English) is heard in another transcription
by Mostras – a distinguished musician
who was appointed Violin Professor at
the Moscow Conservatory in 1914. One
of his pupils was Ivan Galamian.

The Corelli might have
been better first on the programme to
give the disc a recital feel. As it
is – and of course I appreciate that
one can programme these things – it
sits marooned between the Hugo Wolf
and Mozart transcriptions. Inna Kogan
plays it with discreet intelligence
adopting a modified romantic approach
– modest vibrato, taking her time over
slow movements and not springing the
rhythm in faster ones. Quite a sober
view.

The Medtner Sonata
is not performed so often that we can
ignore this one. Kogan and Tobias Bigger
take a more relaxed, less interventionist
approach than did the composer and Cecilia
Hansen back in 1947 (on APR and unissued
on 78s). The composer was a magnificent
player and his chordal playing, despite
the primitive state of the surviving
test pressings, was stunning. The Kogan-Bigger
traversal is sensitive and well worth
a listen, though they can’t help but
seem a little foursquare in comparison
and their characterization rather limited.

So, a mixed recital
with a rather strange look. A late seventeenth
century sonata is balanced by a romantic
masterpiece from 1910 and alongside
we have a motley selection of dances,
song transcriptions and the like. I’m
really not sure at whom this is aimed.

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